NEW YORK — For a city that expected both of its baseball teams to compete for division titles, April 2026 has been a rude awakening. The Yankees and Mets arrived in spring as two of the most anticipated clubs in the majors. By mid-April, both franchises found themselves sinking.
The Mets extended their losing streak to eight straight games with an 8-2 loss to the Dodgers on April 16. They now sit at 7-12. The Yankees have been bouncing in and out of skids that cost them first place in the AL East. They enter April 17 at 10-9.
Before the panic fully sets in, it is worth asking a question that puts all of this in perspective. How bad have these franchises truly been at their lowest points? Because history says these current stretches, as painful as they are, do not come close to either franchise’s floor.
A historic simultaneous collapse
The trouble started quietly for both clubs around April 7-8. By April 12, both the Yankees and the Mets were riding five-game losing streaks at the same time. It marked the first time in history that the two New York teams had endured simultaneous five-game skids.
The Yankees had opened the season 8-2 before the bottom fell out. The Mets were coming off a winning series against the Giants when things unraveled. The Athletics swept the Mets at Citi Field. The Rays swept the Yankees at Tropicana Field. From there, the two clubs diverged sharply in how deep their holes got.
The Yankees snapped their skid with a wild 11-10 walk-off win over the Angels on April 13. The Yankees dropped back again the next night when Los Angeles tagged Ryan Weathers for five earned runs in a 7-1 loss. Mike Trout homered three times in two games during that Angels series alone. The Yankees recovered again with a 5-4 walk-off on April 15, when Jose Caballero laced a two-run double after the Angels botched an infield popup. The Yankees close April 16 at 10-9 and open a three-game home series against the Royals on Friday night.
The Mets kept losing. After the five-game streak ended, they traveled to Los Angeles and dropped all three to the Dodgers. Justin Wrobleski shut them out for eight innings on April 13. Yoshinobu Yamamoto was masterful on April 14, allowing one run in 7.2 innings in a 2-1 Dodgers victory. Then Shohei Ohtani struck out 10 in six innings on April 16 in an 8-2 loss that sent the Mets to their eighth consecutive defeat. The Mets have been outscored during the streak and sit at 7-12, last in the NL East.
The Yankees’ numbers entering April 17
The Yankees’ offense has been the central mystery of the first three weeks. The club is hitting .211 as a team, ranking 27th in the majors. Their on-base percentage sits at .311 and slugging at .372. The Yankees have scored 77 runs, placing them 13th in the league.
Aaron Judge is hitting .218 with six home runs and a solid OPS+, but that is still well below the standard he has set over the past two seasons. Jazz Chisholm Jr., who arrived at Yankee Stadium with talk of chasing a 50-50 season, is hitting .179 with no home runs. Trent Grisham is at .133. Jose Caballero, covering shortstop while Anthony Volpe recovers from shoulder surgery, is hitting .146 with 16 strikeouts. Ryan McMahon is at .114.
Ben Rice has been the best hitter on the Yankees roster, slashing .356/.500/.756. But the bottom third of this lineup has been historically bad by early-season standards.
The Mets’ numbers entering April 17
The Mets’ collapse has been alarming. During the eight-game losing streak, New York scored just 12 runs. That is an average of 1.5 runs per game. The team batting average has fallen to .220, ranking sixth-worst in the majors. Without Juan Soto, who went on the 10-day injured list April 6 with a right calf strain, New York has lacked its most dangerous hitter. Soto was slashing .355 with a .928 OPS before the injury.
Francisco Lindor is at .188/.307/.266 on the season. Bo Bichette, in the first year of a three-year, $126 million deal, has a .575 OPS. Marcus Semien is batting .182. Rookie Carson Benge is at .151. Luis Robert Jr. and Francisco Alvarez have been the two consistent producers, but they cannot carry an offense alone.
The Mets rank 27th in runs scored per game, 29th in wRC+ and 27th in extra-base hits, per ESPN.
The worst Yankees losing streaks in history
For a franchise with 27 World Series titles, the Yankees have kept their losing runs remarkably short over more than a century. Their longest losing streak on record was 13 games in 1913, when the club was still establishing its identity. In 1908, then operating as the New York Highlanders, the team lost 12 in a row.
In the modern Yankees era, both 1982 and 2023 produced nine-game Yankees losing streaks. The Yankees hold an MLB record of not losing 10 or more games in a row in over 110 consecutive years. That is a testament to the depth and organizational standards that have defined the franchise across generations. The current stretch of instability does not register as a historical anomaly.
The worst Mets losing streaks in history
The Mets carry a very different historical profile. In their inaugural 1962 season, the expansion club lost 17 games in a row as part of one of the most notorious campaigns in baseball history. That team finished 40-120, one of the worst records in the modern era. The 1963 and 1982 Mets each fell through 15-game losing streaks.
The current eight-game skid is the worst Mets losing streak since 2004, when they dropped nine in a row. Only twice this century have the Mets lost more consecutive games than this current stretch, according to MLB.com. Seen through that lens, the skid is sobering but not unprecedented territory for a Mets franchise that has weathered far worse.
For both New York franchises, history says a turnaround is possible. The light at the end of the tunnel is considerably easier to see in the Bronx than it is in Queens.
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